Edgewater Inventor Hopes He'll Help Save Gentle Giants

Saving The Manatee Is A Job Too Big For A Propeller Guard Alone, But Ken Kroeber Thinks His Invention Has Got To Help.

October 1, 2000|By Rich McKay of The Sentinel Staff

EDGEWATER -- Kersplosh!

The first time Ken Kroeber tried out his invention, he sank his boat in the Intracoastal Waterway. Varoom. One tug on the motor and down he went on a sunny afternoon back in 1989.

"I turned my 16-foot [boat] into a submarine," he said, a bit embarrassed.

Back to the drawing board. He had the right idea -- almost.

Eureka!

This part-time sports fisherman and full-time engineer got it working the next try. Kroeber invented a bendable fin that attaches to the foot beneath the propellers of almost any outboard motor.

Kroeber says his fin gives motorboats more stability and efficiency. And he dreamed it up to protect the manatees -- those gentle sea cows that drift, often unseen, just below the surface of tidal rivers and coastal waters. Every time they come up for air, they could be in harm's way from a speedboat. To a manatee, boats are like deadly battering rams skimming across the water.

The animals are dying in alarming numbers -- often after encounters with motorboats and water scooters. The hides of most manatees are crisscrossed with propeller scars. Scientists use the scars to tell one sea cow from another.

Gov. Jeb Bush is pushing for the 13 coastal counties to come up with tougher measures to protect the manatees.

That includes Volusia and Brevard counties, which attract boaters from all over Central Florida who fish in the Intracoastal Waterway or lazily cruise up the St. Johns River.

If they don't come up with more stringent rules, the state could hold back on approving any new boat landings.

A manatee summit is scheduled for Oct. 19 in Tallahassee to discuss the sea cows, which became an endangered species in the 1970s.

The estimated manatee population in Florida waters is at least 2,200, state figures show. That's nearly double the number counted in 1991.

Still, the number of dead manatees continues to rise and has government bigwigs wrestling with ways to protect the manatees.

"The manatee has the potential of being one of the success stories of the Endangered Species Protection Act," said Kipp Frohlich, the biological administrator for the manatee section of the state's Bureau of Protected Species Management.

For instance, Blue Spring in Orange City counted a meager 11 manatees back in the 1970s. That population now tops 100.

"I think they have more than a shot at it, but it doesn't mean that they're out of the woods," he said.

Kroeber is offering his small part of the solution.

"I came up with this to protect the manatee," he said. "It helps the boat, too, but that's not why I started on this."

The issue of propeller guards is complicated. Kroeber didn't come up with the idea. There are dozens on the market, but he has a patent on his own version, called Hydro-Shield.

Some state lawmakers love the idea of propeller guards, so much so that in 1997 some wanted to pass a law making propeller guards required on every new boat built starting in 1999. But that idea was ditched.

Boaters complained that the propeller shields sapped the power of their crafts and made them gas-guzzling monsters -- and harder to steer.

Manatee enthusiasts, such as the members of the Save the Manatee Club, are lukewarm to the idea of propeller guards.

Most manatees are killed or seriously wounded from the impact of fast-moving boats, said Sandra Clinger, a spokeswoman for the group who is in favor of anything that protects manatees.

Motor blades that slice into their hides run a distant second to the blunt-force trauma of boats. In some cases, Clinger said, the propeller guards can make the situation worse by making a bigger object under the water that can hit the manatees.

And boaters could get careless, she said.

"The guards could give a boater a false sense of security," Clinger said. "They might think they can't hurt a manatee now, and drive faster, and be less careful."

"The best thing you can do for a manatee is not to hit at all," she said.

The reality is that boaters in Florida's waters are here to stay, and the manatees are outnumbered.

There are more than 800,000 registered boaters in Florida, compared with those 2,200 manatees.

Kroeber, 58, takes the view that if something can help the manatee, don't knock it just because it doesn't solve all of the hazards the creatures face.

Kroeber, who works in Longwood, dreamed up his invention after watching a television program that showed another kind of prop shield.

He knew right away he could do better. Or at least, he had to try.

"I sat down right away and started sketching," he said.

Flea markets were his testing ground.

"I started selling them at the Oak Hill flea market. People would come back and tell me what was right and what was wrong," he said.

He tinkered with the idea, making it better.

One fisherman, Charles Kinney, 56, of Orange City, swears by it.

He has one of Kroeber's fins on his propeller. He says it has saved his prop from damage on rocks and stumps in the Hontoon Dead River, as well as protecting any manatee.

He says he never rode over a manatee in all his years of fishing, but he just wanted to be safe.

"Nobody ever told me that I had to put that thing on there," he said.

Now Kroeber sells his Hydro-Shields in fishing magazines and on the Internet.

His product was featured on an ABC news program with Peter Jennings.

On weekends and at night, from his home in Edgewater, Kroeber makes about 1,000 shields a year.